Amity Isles (MerDanny fic)
by LexiTeal
Summary: Mercreatures take the place of ghosts in this AU of DP. Everything suddenly changes when Danny and his friends decide to sneak down into his parents' boathouse lab. Stormy waters and a semi-rare Blue Moon are all it takes to change their lives forever… And it seems that Danny is still destined to be Amity's supernatural hero. DxS


**Chapter 1: Once in a Blue Moon**

Danny's head slammed into the hard metal wall of lockers, making his vision spin, his icy blue eyes struggling to regain focus. "See you later, _Fenturd_!" Dash Baxter sneered in his face, letting go of his shirt collar and watching him slide down to the floor. The blonde football jock gave him one last kick to the ribs before he left to join the rest of his A-lister 'friends'. Danny groaned and slowly picked himself up off the floor just as his two friends came walking around the corner. "I hate high school." he grumbled.

"Danny! What happened?" his best friend Tucker asked as he came up next to him. "Dash happened," Danny muttered, wincing and grabbing his ribs where Dash had kicked him moments before. His other friend, Sam, furrowed her eyebrows, "Are you okay? Do you need to go to the nurse?" He briefly noticed Tucker pale at the mention of the nurse's office; he shook his head, eyes flashing in amusement. Tucker has a severe phobia of hospitals and the like. "No, I'm fine," Danny grimaced as he felt pain shoot through his ribs before readjusting the collar of his shirt, "He's done worse."

His friends nodded and they all headed outside, glad that the weekend was finally here. "So…" Tucker said, "Are you guys coming to that Blue Moon Festival in Amity Park tomorrow?" Amity Park, the largest island of the Amity Isles, was hosting a huge Blue Moon Party in celebration of a blue moon that only comes around once every three years. It was a huge tradition for the people of Amity, and apparently a really big deal, though he never really understood why. It wasn't nearly as rare a sight as many other cosmic events.

Sam grimaced, "Yeah, my parents are making me go. There's an exclusive yacht party that they insist on us going to." Many students in Amity High probably didn't even realize it, but Samantha Manson was by far the richest one in the school. Unlike the other A-listers, however, she didn't flaunt her wealth. Quite the opposite, actually. Ever since starting junior high, Sam has taken to wearing Goth clothes and declaring herself an "ultra-recyclo-vegetarian", much to her parents' chagrin.

Tucker nodded in his direction, "What about you, Danny? You gonna go?"

Danny shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, probably. I've got nothing better to do."

"Well I'm definitely going! Think of all the girls we'll see in bikinis!" Tucker laughed excitedly. Danny chuckled softly and rolled his eyes. Tucker was such a flirt. A really _bad _flirt.

By now, they had reached the bay that served as the school's 'parking lot'. Unlike a normal town, Amity Isles didn't have any parking lots or cars. Instead, they had a bunch of harbors and small boats. There were thousands of islands that made up Amity Isles. The high school alone took up several islands with bridges in place of typical hallways in order to connect them. Most neighborhoods tended to cluster together on one island. The Mansons were an exception. Sam's family had their own private island, about a quarter the size of an entire 'neighborhood island'. While Sam didn't like to brandish her fortunes, her parents sure did. Which brought him back to the three of them walking down the beach.

Three boats were lined up beside one another. The first one was an extravagant, multimillion-dollar yacht. The next was a typical, average 4-person motorboat. And the last one…. well… in all honestly it looked like a motorboat belonging to mad scientists. Random machinery and gadgets were welded everywhere. He was surprised it could still float. Oh, and you couldn't forget the large "FENTON SIREN SPEEDER" painted in huge neon green letters along the hull of the boat. They all said goodbye before splitting off towards their respective boats.

Danny hopped aboard the Fenton Siren Speeder to find that Jazz was the only one there. "Where's Mom and Dad?" he asked her as she put down her psychology book and looked up at him. "Working on the finishing touches for their mermaid fish-portal thingy… or whatever. I'm taking you home today."

Danny grunted in acknowledgement before taking a seat as Jazz sped off towards the house. Within minutes, their house came into view. Not that it looked much like a normal house. For one, there was a gigantic submarine on the roof that their parents liked to refer to as an 'Ops center'. If you didn't count the submarine, their house had three stories: the first floor was actually a public aquarium—the Fenton family business called "Fenton Works". The next two floors were where they lived. The aquarium is what supported their family financially, but his parents' true pride and joy came from their boathouse that was docked right beside the house. This was their laboratory.

It was in their boathouse that they did most of their 'groundbreaking' research. And they researched mermaids, of all things.

He helped Jazz tether their boat to the dock before walking up the sandy beach and into the house. Upon opening the front door, he was greeted with the familiar surroundings of huge tanks and bright, colorful fish. He walked to the back of the aquarium and opened the door concealing a set of stairs that led to their private residence. Dragging his backpack up the skinny flight of stairs, Danny quickly crossed through the living room and headed up another flight of stairs until he ended up in his bedroom on the third floor.

After closing the door, he let his backpack drop down to the ground with a sigh. It was nice to be back home. Why did summer have to end so soon?

He slowly walked over to his bed and flipped open his laptop computer. He had promised Tucker that he'd play Doomed with him once school got out. They were so close to completing the level. He slipped on his headphones and linked them to his computer before joining Tuck, who was already online and waiting.

Before he knew it, several hours had crept by and they finally decided to call it a day. Danny tugged his headphones off and dropped back onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Ever since Danny was real little, he had decided that he wanted to become an astronaut when he was older. His entire ceiling was covered in a swirling mural of the galaxy. Small mobiles of planets, comets, and stars hung haphazardly around the room. Some of his favorite constellations twinkled down at him, having been painted on his ceiling with glow-in-the-dark glitter paint when he was five. There was even a poster on his wall of the Aurora 7 capsule signed by Scott Carpenter himself, one of the original seven Americans to explore space.

Danny sighed, closing his eyes as he let his exhaustion seep in. It'd been a long day. It was only the first week and he already had homework in several of his classes… he slowly drifted off into sleep…

Danny woke up to the distant sound of a doorbell ringing followed by loud knocking a few moments later. Blinking open his eyes, he glanced over at the alarm clock. 8:05 pm. Dragging himself out of bed, he blinked away his drowsiness and headed downstairs. As he got to the bottom of the steps, his mom was just closing the door with three large boxes of pizza balanced in her arms, still wearing her typical turquoise jumpsuit like she always did. His eyes lit up playfully, "No mutated fish sticks for dinner tonight?!" he asked cheekily. His mom huffed in mock indignation, "There is nothing wrong with the fish sticks in the fridge!" she said, trying to hold back a smile.

"Right," Danny smirked, "There's nothing wrong with scaly, fried fish sticks that glow in the dark. My bad," he quipped, stepping closer to help her with the pizza boxes. They smelled _so_ good.

"They're actually not that bad!" his Dad said as he came barging into the living room from our kitchen in his usual, bright orange jumpsuit. Both of their eyes drifted resignedly to the half-eaten mutant fish sticks in his giant fist with mild disgust. He was almost used to it by now… almost.

Jazz came down the stairs then, making a face when she saw the scaly fish sticks. "Remind me to clean out the fridge tomorrow," she muttered in disgust, scrunching her nose.

Dad just shrugged before stuffing the rest of the fish sticks in his mouth. "Pizza for dinner, Mads?" he asked, grinning from ear to ear. She nodded and the two of them set the boxes down on the coffee table, each grabbing a slice before sitting down on the couch. Jazz and Dad each took a slice and found a seat, while he snatched the TV remote and started flicking through the channels. Danny set the remote down once he got to a movie that had just started playing, half-listening to the scene while picking up a second slice of pizza.

After a couple of movies and three boxes of pizza later, they all mumbled their goodnights and wandered up to bed. It was gonna be a long day tomorrow.

Sunlight spilled into the room and blinded him as he reached out for his phone lying on the bedside table. 9:43 am. With 5 unread messages. Danny tapped in his passcode and pulled up the messages. They were from the group chat between him, Sam, and Tucker.

The first one was from Sam:

_Hey, what time r u guys going to the festival? _

The second and third were from Tucker:

_Dunno. This afternoon sometime. _

_Wanna eat at Nasty Burger first?_

Then Sam:

_YES. I have 2 b at that stupid yacht party at 2 tho. _

_Maybe at 12? Danny, u awake?_

Danny hurriedly typed a response, agreeing to meet up with them at 12:00 in front of Nasty Burger. Dragging himself out of bed, he snatched a pair of white swim trunks and an old NASA t-shirt before walking into the bathroom for a quick shower.

With hair still dripping wet, he went back to his room and grabbed his phone to check the time. It was only ten o'clock. He still had another two hours before meeting up with Sam and Tuck.

Out of nowhere, he heard a large crash come from downstairs in the living room.

_Mom and Dad must be working on a new 'invention'._ Danny thought to himself. _No doubt they plan on showing it off tonight at the festival… _he groaned and facepalmed. _They can be so embarrassing… _After towel drying his hair a little bit, he trotted down the stairs, curiosity of their latest gadget winning out over embarrassment.

Reaching the living room, he saw both of his parents tinkering with a huge telescope-like… thing.

It was pretty bizarre. Like all of their 'products', the large telescope thing was made of white metal with neon green accents and had "FENTON" engraved on it for the whole world to see. His mom was constantly opening a bunch of different panels, adjusting wires and tapping in a series of codes. His dad gripped a small remote in his large hand, testing all of its buttons, switches, and levers.

"So… what does this thing do?" Danny asked walking up to them and reaching out to feel the cool, white metal.

"Careful!" his Mom yelped, grabbing his outstretched hand before he had the chance to touch their new invention, "It's not quite finished yet, I don't want you to accidentally hurt yourself," she warned.

"What is it? What does it do?" Danny asked with mild curiosity, though he knew whatever its intended purpose was, it probably wouldn't work. None of their inventions had worked so far. Regardless, her eyes lit up and a smile spread across her face, "Well, you see, this here is the Fenton Space-Siren Scope!" She said proudly as she jammed a panel back in its proper place, "We're going to present it at the festival!" She beamed.

"That's right, Danny-boy! This baby's gonna show all of Amity Isles that sirens and mermaids really _do_ exist!" his Dad gloated, patting the side of the telescope a little harder than he probably should have.

"Jack, careful honey. We just fixed the dent on that side…" Maddie fussed, pulling her goggles back down over her eyes and examining the telescope once more.

Still slightly confused as to what the telescope actually _did_, Danny decided it was best to just walk away now. He really didn't want to get roped into whatever his parents were up to today.

Danny headed downstairs, deciding to spend the rest of his morning logging extra time and helping out around the aquarium. Fenton Works only had a few outside employees, one of them being Mikey, a scrawny kid that was the same age as Danny and his friends. He currently stood behind the small counter tucked into the front corner of the aquarium, a wall of cheap FENTON souvenirs displayed behind him.

"H-Hey Danny," the boy said, blinking the sleep from his eyes, his head still in his hands, elbows still resting on the counter. "Busy morning?" Danny chuckled as Mikey stifled a yawn, shaking his head. Danny went over to a supply closet and grabbed a bottle of window cleaner and a couple of old rags, leaving Mikey to doze back off… no one was gonna come into the aquarium today anyway, not with the festival happening tonight. He busied himself by cleaning the outside of the tanks, watching with mild amusement as the fish darted off when he sprayed the window cleaner and began wiping down the glass. Before he knew it, it was 11:45. He placed the cleaner back in the supply closet and tossed the rags in a bucket behind the front counter before clocking out and heading towards Nasty Burger. He was starving.

In lieu of sidewalks, small bridges (or sometimes even an isthmus) connected many of the small islands together. Danny had to cross three such bridges before making it to Nasty Burger.

Tucker was already there, leaning against the building with his eyes glued to his PDA. As Danny walked up, Tucker ripped his eyes away from the screen and a smile spread across his face. "Hey Danny!" he greeted, before looking down again, distracted once more by the small piece of tech in his hands. Danny snorted, rolling his eyes before leaning against the wall next to Tuck. Less than a minute later, Sam came jogging around the corner. She was wearing a black racerback tank and dark purple Nike shorts with matching running shoes, her dark ebony hair tied back in a ponytail.

Tucker glanced up as she came to a halt beside them, "Just in time. Come on, let's get some food!" he grinned, stashing his PDA into his cargo pant pocket before pushing open the doors to Nasty Burger. Danny lurched forward and caught the door before it slammed shut behind an eager Tucker, holding it open as Sam walked through, with him following close behind.

After ordering their food, they sat down at their normal booth, right next to the open window with a brilliant ocean view. The only thing marring the perfect scene were distant grey clouds and a small amount of trash that the wind must've blown from the dumpsters out back. Sam followed Danny's gaze and he heard a small, irritated huff come from beside him. She must've noticed the few pieces of trash littering the beach.

Tucker, completely oblivious towards the source of Sam's sudden irritation, took a large slurp of soda before looking at them with excitement, "Rumor has it, Paulina's hot cousin is coming in for the festival tonight," he said, wiggling his eyebrows. Danny choked back a laugh while Sam scrunched her nose in disgust. Her scowl deepened when their food was brought over and she saw Danny's double cheeseburger and Tuck's triple meat burger with extra bacon. She gratefully snatched her veggie burger and side salad. "Boys…" she muttered, rolling her eyes as she stuffed a forkful of greens in her mouth…

After finishing their lunch, and Sam quickly clearing away the trash on the beach, the trio began making their way to the island of Amity Park.

Danny glanced at Sam walking beside him, a slight frown adorning her face. "You're really not looking forward to that yacht party, are you? You've been sulking all day," he commented as they walked over a narrow strip of sand connecting two of the small islands. Tucker was lagging a little bit behind them, hunched over his PDA as always. She glanced up at Danny, who was a few inches taller than she was, and blinked in surprise, "Oh. Uh, yeah… I guess so. I never have anyone my age to talk to and my mother always makes me wear a stupid, frilly dress," she said, making a sour face and causing Danny to chuckle in amusement. Her face broke out into a grin and she shouldered Danny, knocking him off balance and almost into the water. "Hey!" he laughed, "Not fair!" he said, bending down and splashing some water in her direction, with a satisfied smirk on his face.

Her eyes flashed in mock anger, "Oh no you didn't!" Before he could even brace himself, she jumped forward, tackling him and knocking them both into the shallow salt water. Both of them erupted in a fit of laughter, even more so when Tucker, not looking where he was going, tripped over Sam's feet and faceplanted into the water next to them. He gasped in shock and scrambled to fish his precious PDA out of the ocean, grumbling about how lucky they were that it was waterproof. He glanced over at his two best friends, Sam lying on top of Danny, "Lovebirds," he muttered smugly.

"We're not lovebirds!" they protested at the same time, cheeks flushing a deep red. Sam quickly scrambled up onto her feet, Danny sitting up and running a hand through his soaked, raven hair.

It was then that they heard the sound of music playing. Tucker helped Danny to his feet and the three of them resumed walking toward the festival, following the sound of the music. As they approached, Danny looked around at the colorful banners and pop-up tents that marked the entrance to the festival. They still had an hour before Sam had to be at that yacht party. The three friends shared a glance and nodded, grins on their faces. Time for some funnel cakes.


End file.
